Switzerland & France 2015

For the winter of 2014/2015, we were planning for our snowboarding trip as it's actually been a while since we last did snowboarding. I first picked up snowboarding during my one year in Stockholm while I was doing my NUS NOC internship. It was definitely a rough and late start to the sport but the beginning of a highly addictive hobby. Since then, I've snowboarded in Romme Alpin (Sweden), Sälen (Sweden), Les Gets (France), Nanshan (China) and Yongpyong (South Korea). 

Snowboarding in Les Gets, France 2009

For this trip, we were planning to go somewhere near, preferably in Asia so it wouldn't be too costly. With those considerations in mind, we decided to head back to South Korea. Over there we could find good food, nice people and decently priced places for snowboarding. But as I researched on, it didn't seem as value-for-money as compared to snowboarding in Europe. The prices of the ski-passes and snowboard rental between Korea and Europe were almost the same but the ski domain is significantly larger in Europe. We are talking about 29km of ski runs in Yongpyong and 600km of ski runs in Val Thorens!

The Val Thorens Experience

As promised, we are back with our Val Thorens (Snowboarding) Experience in this second blog post.

We were so happy that we got to stand up on the peaks & snowboard down snow-covered slopes together.

As mentioned, we had signed up for 5 days of snowboard lessons & that would be conducted by 1 instructor and a small group of us, ranging from 3-10 people, depending on how many turned up for that day. Here's how our day was like for the first 5 days with lessons:

The long awaited Snowboarding Trip

Standing at the peak of the alps with the love of my life (Val Thorens, France)

Kenneth is crazy passionate about snowboarding since he first clipped on the snowboard & went down the slopes in 2008. Since then, he has always planned (or tried to) for snowboarding trips once a year.

Ibis Styles Bandung Braga Hotel Review (Indonesia)

It's a lovely hotel with modern and funky decor from the lobby, to the dining area, corridors and of course the rooms. The rooms were spacious enough for you to open your luggages and you get a nice view of the city if you're on the higher floors. I love the design of the room with the glass separator for the toilet.

The staff were really friendly and helpful and always greeted and conversed with smiles on their faces. There are pubs around the area and a nice spa place nearby too. Great place and will definitely consider coming back again!

Our room

View from our room

Date of stay: Nov 2014

Address:
Jalan Braga No 8, Bandung City Center, Bandung, Indonesia 40111

Links:
Tripadvisor listing
Agoda listing

P-Hotels Brattøra Review (Trondheim Norway)

Considering that Norway is such an expensive country, this hotel is very value for money and is within walking distance to the city. It's conveniently located near the train station (just beside the hotel), ferry terminal and airport bus station. So this is a good location if you have an early morning flight/ferry/train to catch as you could easily make your way there from the hotel.

Simple and nice rooms with enough space to open up your luggages. The toilets were rather spacious too.

Wifi is accessible from the lobby. So request for the rooms nearer to the lobby if you want the wifi in your room. Mine was the last room, so we couldn't really access it.

Rough walking time without luggage:
Trains - 1 minute
Bus - 1 minute
Ferry - 10-15 min

Hotel entrance

(Credits: Agoda)

Hotel room

(Credits: Agoda)

Date of stay: July 2014

Address:
Fosenkaia, Trondheim, Norway

Links:
Tripadvisor listing
Agoda listing

Guesthouse Anita Review (Mljet, Croatia)

Anita and her husband were really helpful and ensured that we got everything we needed. The weren't working on site at the guest house but they arrived to greet and welcomed us when we arrived. During the times there weren't around, their neighbours acted as host and helped us resolved any issues or enquires that we had. We had the room on the ground floor and could have our meals outside while having a nice view of the ocean. You could also head down to swim. There were a few eateries within walking distance. It was a simple, nice, quaint and peaceful place. Overall we had a good stay. Would recommend this place!

Entrance to our room

View from our bedroom. That's the porch where we would have our breakfast. And that's our rented bike.

Area in front of our room

Date of stay: July 2014

Address:
Sobra 34, Mljet, Croatia 20225

Links:
Agoda listing
Tripadvisor listing

Homey house Review (Taipei, Taiwan)

(Credits: agoda.com)

(Credits: agoda.com)

Everything looks brand new. The staff was extremely friendly and prompt. We arrived really early at around 10am and we could not check in yet as the standard check-in time was 3pm. That was fine as there weren't any extra rooms and they needed to wait for the guest to check out and clean up the room. But staff was really kind and offered us additional complimentary breakfast for that morning.  Thumbs up to Vivi for that kind gesture! :)

Date of stay: Aug 2013

Address:
No.56, Changchun Rd., Zhongshan District, Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

Links:
Official website
Agoda listing